O.J. Simpson first entered the national consciousness forty-nine years ago – two years before the Apollo 11 moon landing and five years before color television became the household norm in America[1].

His five decades of cultural relevance are at once remarkable and tragic. During that time, Simpson has been a football player, media personality, accused double murderer, and convicted felon. In 2016, thanks to a critically acclaimed ten-part series on FX and a highly anticipated five-part documentary on ESPN and ABC, O.J. Simpson is strangely famous and infamous once again[2].

Like so many things in life, what we know or remember of Simpson depends on when we were born, or when we first started paying attention to him. But early memories tend to fade and change, and the facts that precede our first memories of O.J. – whenever they were – become nebulous.

Baby boomers knew the Heisman, the hero, the poetry-in-motion star. But do they really remember how good O.J. Simpson was? Their kids first came to know Simpson in the trial, or perhaps the Naked Gun, but always took the media’s word that O.J. was some sort of football great, if only because it was thrown around as casual preface to everything that came after.

Now, young millennials are being introduced to Simpson by way of Cuba Gooding Jr. and ESPN, or the realization that O.J. somehow had something to do with the Kardashians. They’ll have to trust not only that Simpson was a football and media star, but also that his trial was culturally significant.

When O.J. went to trial in 1995[3], nearly three in five Americans were old enough to remember his football prime[4]. Today, only one-third of the population can make that claim[5]. In fact, more Americans today are too young to remember O.J. in the courtroom than are old enough to remember his best years on the field[6].

And so we’re left in an interesting cultural predicament. O.J. Simpson is more infamous for being O.J. Simpson than he is famous for what made him O.J. Simpson in the first place – football.

Footnotes[1] ABC, CBS, and NBC aired color prime-time schedules in September 1966, but a majority of Americans had black-and-white televisions until 1972[2] ESPN's "O.J.: Made in America" 30 for 30 documentary series premieres Saturday, June 11 on ABC, with subsequent parts scheduled to air between June 14 and 18 on ESPN (ABC News)[3] Opening statements began on Jan 24, 1995. Jurors were sworn in in Nov 1994 and alternates were sworn in in Dec 1994​[4] In 1995, 150 million Americans of a total population of 263 million were 30+ years old (57%), meaning they were 7+ years old in 1972 (Centers for Disease Control & Prevention)[5] In 2016, an estimated 109 million Americans of a total population of ~320 million are 51+ years old (34%), meaning they were 7+ years old in 1972 (U.S. Census)[6] In 2016, an estimated 115 million Americans are 0-27 years old, meaning they were six or younger in 1995; an estimated 109 million Americans are 51+ years old, meaning they were 7 or older in 1972 (U.S. Census)